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We made reasonably good time (in the opinion of a series guy) to the start of the trail, stopping once in Breckenridge to top off with fuel. We reached the trailhead at west end of Montgomery Reservoir at close to 1100, where we met the last four trucks, two more D-90s belonging to Jim Molter and John Bittenbinder, and Mark Groves and Terry Graham in Mark’s ’01 Disco II. Lionel Rossignol’s ’95 Disco brought the vehicle total to nine. More intros were made, accompanied by much hissing as tires were aired down in preparation for the trail. When all were ready, we set out up the road, passing under the gradually deteriorating walkway at the Magnolia mill. One of these days, perhaps soon, time and gravity will win and the whole thing will collapse.

The three-mile long trail winds up the valley of the Middle Fork of the South Platte between 14,286 foot Mount Lincoln to the south and the Continental Divide to the north. 12,168′ Wheeler Lake, the river’s source, and nearby Wheeler Mountain are named for Lt. George Wheeler, who led a U.S. Geological Survey expedition in the 1870′s to collect an accurate physical description of the territory west of the 100th meridian.

Arriving at the first obstacle, I decided to give the difficult left side variation a shot. Last time I was up here I gave it a try, but the rain-slicked rock had given my tires little purchase. This time, on a sunny day with dry rock, I found myself still flailing. I back down and change my approach. This time I made a little more distance, but also scored what felt like very large air under my right front corner. OK, well maybe not today. I again backed down and took the left side without difficulty. Marc Richardson, right behind me, took a look at the right variation, then without even a spot walked it like there was nothing to it. Don’t folks like that just irritate the heck out of you? My only consolation was that nobody else tried it, everyone taking the left side.

The second major obstacle presented a number of choices. I picked the easiest line, just right of center. Marc, in the number two slot, took the tricky looking center-left line. The approach wasn’t quite right and required a bit of readjustment, and on the second attempt Marc decided he’d prefer the far left side. Backing down to reposition, the right front wheel suddenly dropped off an edge, dropping down and left, and bringing a startled look of concern to Marc’s face. The situation was quickly assessed and he continued to back into position to reapproach on far left and successfully negotiated the new line. Kristy took far right line, straddling the ominous wedge and, with minor initial slippage from muddy tires, walked the yellow D-90 right up. The rest of the D-90s and Mark Groves’ white Disco II followed her line and the other two Discos took my line up the center.

Above this obstacle, the difficulties relented and the group made steady progress. The big mud hole I remember from my last trip had diminished considerably and was negotiated without difficulty. As we approached the final ascent to the lake, we could see a number of downward bound vehicles on the road above. We found a spot and pulled off for lunch and to let the descending rigs pass.

The final half-mile climb began as a climb up a surprisingly slippery section of rounded cobbles that ran all the way to the first switchback, where the most difficult obstacle on the trail used to be. Just what happened to it a couple years ago, I don’t know, but everyone negotiated it without difficulty and we all arrived at the lake shortly thereafter. The weather was beautiful and there was plenty of time for photos and to let the dogs swim. Lionel hiked west up the line of waterfalls looking for a 2 nd lake above. The rumored 4wd damage around the lake was nowhere to be seen. Just wildflowers, blue sky, and sunshine on water and granite.

After we had soaked up our fill of the alpine environment, we loaded up and headed out for a relatively uneventful descent, following gravity’s lead back to the trailhead. Back at the second obstacle, everyone took a turn at the wedge and came through unscathed. Well, I guess I did tag a rear corner, but it seems I do that once on every trail. Just wait till I get my corner armor welded up.

Back at the trailhead after a round of good-byes, the group split up and everyone headed home, half going north the way we came, and half taking the scenic route through Fairplay and back up 285. If you haven’t done Wheeler lakes, keep an eye out for the next opportunity.

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Children had a play set and a trampoline to challenge their physical capabilities. I still can envision Peyton Vali laughing while bouncing uncontrollably, powered by the aftershock jumps of the kids around him. The trampoline also became a balancing challenge for Tim Clair early into the evening. Oh by the way, Tim has an outstanding off-road vehicle equipped with CD player, air-conditioning, and sun roof.

The guys had the opportunity to run their vehicles up the ramp to test flexibility. And as Yousef will tell you, he’s the greatest. He rode the ramp to the day’s high, utilizing his extreme setup to the max. But I think points should be deducted for riding on the outside edge instead of on the ramp, but probably should receive points for not falling off. Challenging him was Matt Schulze, using a more standard setup. And there were lots of attempts just for curiosity. And some, like Bob Lohman and Pat Bickford , surprised the crowd. Some measured their progress in feet, some in inches. However, only Chris Rice ‘s dog reached the top.

Thank you Daniel and Stephanie Padgett for the best use of pastel chalk on a drive way.

Thank you to the Lohmans who answer to either Pat or Bob.

Thank you John Hanna for representing Solihull history.

Thank you Trish Hall for adopting the cowboy attire which contrasted slick Norman ‘s purple Fila.

Thank you Russ Wilson for the Dormobile with upstairs sleeping quarters.

Thank you Carl Padgett for bringing the ramp, and Judy.

Thank you Keith and Matt [names not important….they came in non-Rovers] for helping Carl set up the ramp.

Thank you Ali Vali for contributing items for the raffle.

Thank you Roseanne Schulze for trucking the beer and ice.

Thank you Matt and Catherine Schulze for allowing the club to use and abuse your property.

Thank you to the members and their families who attended and made this a success.

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My morning started way earlier than it usually does, 7am to be exact (I don’t pry open my eyes ‘til 8am on workdays and even then I’m not coherent til after my 1 st Pepsi). Nathan and I had spent the night at Josh White’s house because it’s supposedly closer to the trailhead than my bed in Longmont . After popping the kinks out of my back from a wonderful night on Josh’s couch (buy another bed, dude), we made PB&Js and turkey sandwiches for lunch, hit McD’s for some breakfast and proceeded to dodge slower drivers along US285 to get to Webster Pass trailhead by 8:30. You have to understand, Josh is a videographer for Fox News which means he drives to breaking stories at insanely high rates of speed, so when I say dodging slower drivers I really mean like 4-alarm ambulance “someone’s going to die” high rates of speed.

We met up with the Molters at the trailhead (they led) and aired down our tires (I could be like the cool Land Rover guys and say tyres, but I’ll refrain because it screws up my spellcheck). This would be a good time to point out that Nathan and I were driving with Josh in Josh’s truck. We decided to leave the “Camel” at home for the weekend and play tourist and let Josh do all the intense driving. We were standing around hoping for more vehicles when another Disco ( I do know my Disco from D-90), pulled off 285. It slowly rolled towards us and then passed us. Two guys looked us over and then kept moving. We watched after them and wondered who they were and if they were looking for us. Minutes later they returned and inquired what we were about. Jim did a great job of explaining the Solihull Society and our day trip we were about to start and invited them along. They seemed interested and pulled in line behind us. After a few more minutes 4(?) more Rovers pulled off and pulled in line and we were ready to start out. Jim introduced himself to everyone, briefly went over the trail we’d do and we were off. It was decided 2 of the trucks would turn around after desending Red Cone to do a loop and return to their other car they were leaving behind.

The trail started out great, blue skies, birds tweeting, engines rumbling, both Nathan and Josh jumping in and out of the truck to get video and photos of the group as we chugged along for the newsletter and website, and then bump and crack and THWAP, THWAP, THWAP. We were maybe 10 minutes up the trail and the passenger side motor mount on Josh’s truck decides to disintegrate. OK, granted it could have happened anywhere, it was just normal wear and tear, but did it have to happen today, only 10 minutes into the trail? We all pulled off the trail, the guys pulled out all the tools they could find and promptly pulled up their pants, turned round their ball caps and leaned heavily onto the front of Josh’s vehicle peering into the engine compartment. “Yep, broken motor mount,” they all agreed. Phew! I’m glad they got that figured out. After about 30 minutes of knocking around in there (because that’s what they really do when they’re in there—just use different tools to hit the engine so it sounds like they’re busy) they removed some plastic surrounding the fan so it didn’t THWAP and it was decided we could proceed on the trail as long as we kept an eye on the temperature gauge.

Back in the truck, discussions turned to the difference between men and boys (I started this one because I was obviously in a truck full of boys), Seinfeld quotes, and the state of the Solihull Society. All this was accompanied by the soothing sound of a stream trickling parallel to the trail. We ascended into blooming alpine meadows above timberline and stopped for lunch just before our ascent of Red Cone. Although the day was drop-dead gorgeous, and Mother Nature is almost always that, it was a bit blowy and chilly at our lunch spot. After lining the vehicles up for photo ops, we unpacked lunch and sat on the leeward side of the vehicles to get out of the wind (I don’t know if leeward applies here but it’s a term carried over from my boating days in Hawaii meaning downwind).

We watched as a few vehicles returned down off of Red Cone and some that went up only to turn around (wussies? Not sure, although they weren’t driving Land Rovers). We got back into our vehicles and slowly started our climb to the top of Red Cone. It was at this point that I was made aware that my driver (Josh) had only been down Red Cone once and that was with no clutch. Hmm. I contemplated switching vehicles. I hesitated and changed my mind after noticing the trail had dropped to a couple hundred foot plummet on either side. Blue sky was all I could see leaning back in my passenger seat and bracing for the summit. Josh and I joked that we could here the clatter of the roller coaster engine straining to pull us to the top and then release us over the other side. I had only ever seen Red Cone from the bottom of the other side so this was a new experience for me. I’d done Radical Hill before at that wasn’t as exciting as Red Cone. I’d heard tons of horror stories of vehicles doing this or that over Red Cone and had the impression this was the mother of all hills in Colorado . “You can still see the drag marks in the loose rock on the side of the mountain from that truck that had to be hauled out of here after tumbling off the side,” I could hear in the back of my mind. Great. What was I thinking. Should I walk down? Do I trust Josh after the way he took 285 this morning?

At the summit, Mary and Nathan switched seats. (This way Nathan would get down first and be able to get some photos of us going off the side of the mountain.) Actually, Mary did a fantastic job of talking Josh through the moguls of Red Cone and Josh put me in charge of filming the descent from the back seat. There were two, “I’m sliding off the seat into a wedgie,” parts of the downhill but they really weren’t that bad. Back on level ground, we rearranged our drawers and I remembered to start breathing again. It really wasn’t bad at all and having to film it while doing it, probably helped keep my mind off the plunge to either side or the possibility of tumbling headlight over taillight down the hill.

We all stopped to look back at the “cone we conquered” and said goodbye to the two vehicles heading back towards their car at the Webster Pass trailhead. Three of us decided to head up and over Radical Hill, while the other two went on down through Monteczuma and Keystone. There was a bit of snow still blocking the main trail at the base of Radical but a suitable bypass was available. We noticed the Adopt-a-Trail sign hadn’t changed to Solihull Society yet so hopefully someone has gotten to it by now. We switched back and forth and easily climbed to the top and were rewarded with a beautiful view. It was then that I was reminded why I moved from Hawaii to Colorado . After 18 years of island paradise, I moved here to experience mountain majesty. And there’s nothing like literally climbing a mountain in a Land Rover to get you to appreciate this awesome country. It’s also at this wonderful unobstructed altitude that we were able to make an uninterrupted cell phone call to Land Rover Flatirons and get new motor mounts ordered for Josh. Ah, technology!

We hoped to see the herd of mountain goats that usually frequent the area but there were a number of other non-Land Rover vehicles making quite a bit of noise along with some hikers and dogs off trail distracting from the view and probably scaring off the goats.

My bladder discreetly reminded me that I was in urgent need of some facilities and I silently cursed boys and their fixtures able to relieve themselves wherever they pleased with just a turn of the back. Thankfully, CHIEF9 knew the quickest way off the mountain and I’m sure it could have done it without Jim & Mary in the vehicle. Down in Breckenridge, they invited us to their home to “take care of business” and air up our tires. It was a nice break to stretch our legs before getting back on I-70 for our long drive home. In the esteemed words of a great trail leader, “a good time was had by all.”

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Those that participated:

Cain Kobert in his ’97 military olive D90

Don Lampman in his black 2001 TJ with everything

Hans and Roseanne Schulze in the white ’95 D90 soft top

And like last weeks trip, there were no other vehicles at the trailhead that posed potential delay. Don seemed super setup with his new TeraFlex kit, and “everything” else. He showed me his Defender 90 in his gun case.

Promptly at 9:15am we were on our way, maneuvering amongst the boulders that makes this trail technical….or lots of fun. We encountered J**ps at a two boulder squeeze and because several had chrome rims, and didn’t want to scratch them, there was a bit of a delay. Don also decided on a real radical line which resulted in a winch.

From there the J**ps took the high road, dirt with tree roots, and we took the low road, the river bed with boulders.

The only other challenging spots included the off camber slick rock with a vehicle high boulder on the drivers side. Because the tires were muddy, it was hard to get traction in order to climb out of a potential dent. We kept sliding toward the jagged boulder that made our “paint scream”. [Thanks Don] It required many back & forths to scramble out.

As we meandered thru the river bed looking for challenges, I saw Cain in my rear view mirror and knew Don was close behind because I could hear his sub-woofer. [Is that like jumbo shrimp, because his sub was over the top?]

We finished the trail at 11 am and instead of driving straight on trail 286 which would end up on 5 Points and out, we ran up a washout, and then took a hard right that eventually led us to a precarious mogul hill that required a steady throttle. Don’s run was text book, but I got stuck very close to the top, and subsequent tries resulted in several potential tip overs.

From there, we followed the trail uphill, turned left at the first chance and followed the path until we had another chance to turn left, downhill. This lead to 286 and the way out. Once we got close to the rutted and gullied playground, cable fencing prevented drivers from entering that area, which was marked for reclamation. Other signs warned that this area would be closed if riders don’t stay on the trail.

Don and I had one other chance to play and that was a short, but steep climb with ruts and rocks. That run ended on the top of a mogul run that also was closed. We then hit 286 again, which took us to the trail head at approximately 12:15 pm .

We had a good time. High fives.

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Things I didn’t know before this trip:

You can call yourself [or is it Yousef] the greatest
You can keep a dog in your jacket or purse but not one of Kristy’s horses
You can lose a cow on the trail and not have a Charlie
You still can get free air if you follow Carl
You can wear a safari hat in Colorado , only if you’re Carl
You can expect sons to show-up fathers
You can’t expect to move large trees
You can experience four seasons in June

The Solihull participants:

Matt, Cat, Hans , and Gabe Schulze with Rollie dog, in their red ’95 D90 with Blanca modifications

Chris Davis in his white ’94 D90 w/o a rollcage

Yousef Hamzeh in “Big Yousef”, the ’95 D90 red monster and guest Mike Morphew

Kristy Long with Max the Chihuahua in her ’95 D90 “Princess Buttercup” with Jan Smith as guest

Carl Padgett , wife Judi and daughter Dani in the white “everything kool” ’97 D90 hardtop

Ali Vali, wife Kirsten and son Peyton in the polo green ’93 Rangie

Larry Grubs in the “downsized” burned red ’90 Rangie

Charlie Haigh and wife Pam in a “custom blue” ‘86 110 pickup with a 300 TDI

Hans Schulze and wife Roseanne in a white ’95 D90 softop

An unexpected timely departure from the Evergreen Park meeting place resulted in futz time at the Starbucks caffeine cabana that was utilized for airing down, gassing up, and all around good natured socializing, By the time we arrived at the trailhead, Larry had his now “princess” un-trailered and un-aired. And when no other groups were assembled at the trail head, we forgot about potential backups. That was until 10 “Toys” passed us at the trailhead, some properly modified for the impending challenges but some not. Oh excrement! But unexpectedly they pulled off to the side to start pre-trail preparations, and therefore good riddance as we passed them….with a friendly wave.

The only expected wheeler that hadn’t arrived was Ali, but a couple of minutes into the trail, a familiar voice boomed over the CB and by the time we started the first obstacle, the troupe was intact. And this rocky, sand peppered, uphill, off-camber climb met with varied degrees of success, but all making it. In the tradition of throwing good bodies into good trucks, Yousef thought he’d put himself between the down-hill and Chris’s D.

As we traversed the kidney rattling switch-backs, we noticed the Toys ahead of us. They either didn’t know about the optional first obstacle or they chose to by-pass it. But they were a friendly bunch and let us play thru.

The next plaything was a bouldered and gullied, 160 degree, uphill turn, natured with pines and aspens on both sides. Some did the 8-point turn to position the obstacle in a favorable, straight-on approach, whilst [thanks Norm] those with tires, temerity, and time cut the corner where it was the steepest and required a left turn at the same time. Open Matt was able to easily do what some locked vehicles struggled with. In the tradition of man over-powering machine, Carl thought he could help Kristy by pulling uphill by her front bumper.

From there, it was several switch-backs and potty stops to the rock garden where three J**ps were finishing their version. Ours lasted until the Toys were able to catch up to us. Long enough for most to have lunch and Peyton to play with his off-road vehicle, reportedly with a little unsteadiness, little like his ole man, eh? Then nature dumped rain-snow-hail material, just enough to dampen the ground but not the spirits.

The by-pass, now chain-sawed open, looked inviting to some, but everyone attempted the harder lines first. No slackers here. Further up the garden was a section where you can get stuck between a rock and a hard place. Several tried, several made it, several were strapped back. Several took the far left by-pass, but not Charlie. He wanted to try door number 2, in between the other two choices. This puppy was bookcased with two trees, and boulders leaning to one side. Charlie now sports a modified roof, but he was a sport about the whole thing.

Although most already had lunch, we wanted to take a break at the clearing, close to the top. There Hans and Gabe could throw meteors into the mud pit, and Rollie could chase anything on fours. We reminisced about past rides, and discussed mods, what else, eh?

It started to drizzle as we descended the switch-backs to Georgetown where some used the pay-for-air machine while some relied on Chris’ compressor. Carl, Kristy, and Yousef started down the frontage road, back toward Downieville, soon followed by Matt and myself when we realized they knew of a free-air machine.

After airing up and gassing up, talk turned to food. Matt et al, Kristy and guest, and Roseanne and I took the frontage to Idaho Springs to eat buffalo. There we saw Charlie’s truck and figured Chris’ vehicle had to be there too. Kristy hinted that her wipers were mysteriously customized while the truck was parked, but we don’t know the details.

Another pleasant Solihull outing.

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The trail is not particularly long, and starts out of the small town of Empire, just off I-70 and Hwy 40. The trail is fairly mellow, but has a few obstacles. The first is the chute, which is optional. It is a side trail which goes off to the left and climbs more steeply up the hill. It has quite a few decent sized rocks that must be negotiated, and a tree root that one has to be careful to not scrape against. Past that is a short mogul hill with several “bypasses” to the left that shouldn’t be there. The bypasses are no better, and probably harder than the main trail, and should be avoided. The legal bypass is a trail that goes to the right before the mogul hill, and meets back up above. There is then another moguled hill with three paths up it, but it isn’t as steep as the first. After that the trail goes up a ways further, then goes down a moderate slope towards the lake. Just a quarter mile or so before the lake is mud pit off to the right. It is deep, narrow and soft. It probably has many logs stuck in it, and the mud is a fine silt that can infiltrate trannys and diffs. It should be avoided, as I found out the hard way a few years ago.

As we headed up the trail, it was decided that the 4-Runner probably didn’t want to go up the chute with all it’s large rocks as they had stock tires, and running boards which would surely suffer if they did. I lead them up the main trail while everyone else went up the chute. Quite a few of them got some good air crossing the ditch at the start of the chute. No one had any problems on the chute from what I was told. We met a few vehicles coming back down, and heard rumors of a group of built Jeeps that were trying to break through to the lake. The Bronco club was also supposedly trying to get to the lake too. We never saw either of them.

The mogul hill didn’t present many problems, although a few people had to take different lines, and we had to figure out that the Toyota’s traction control took some rpm’s to start working, like Land Rover’s. The second mogul hill gave no problems what so ever. We made our way up to the top, and could see clouds all around us with what looked like snow. We still had clear sky above us, but probably not for long. There wasn’t any snow until we started down the hill and ran into a small, narrow drift right in the middle of the trail. I tried going through it a couple times, but wasn’t getting far, so I went around it carefully like many others had. Upon doing that, I started thinking that I shouldn’t have as I was setting a bad example of going around hard parts, so I immediately stopped and put on my two sets of chains. Carl was the next to get to the snow, and it took him a few tries, but with his larger and newer tires, he managed to bust through. everyone else made it through ok except Tom in the Toyota due to the lower ground clearance. Jim Molter quickly pulled him through however. I then came upon a deeper looking drift that petered out on the right side of the trail. I started across it and sank somewhat on the left side, but was still worried I might be tipped to far to miss the trees on the right. I did make it through, but with a little pucker factor. Everyone else made it through ok, although I watched Carl enjoy about the same angle I had encountered.

Further down the trail, all tracks ended except for a couple 4-wheelers ahead of us. Virgin snow, scary virgin snow. This was a long drift on the steepest downhill section.

A steep drop-off was on the right, with a deep drift covering the left 2/3 of the trail for maybe 50 feet, and another short one after it. I was wondering if I should attempt it, and probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the narrow dirt section on the right. I figured it was enough to keep me from sliding off the edge, plus Carl, who was behind me had a winch, and so did I. I slowly made my way across, sinking slightly into the snow, but still supported by most of it, and at an uncomfortable angle again.. I finally made it across the long section, and got to even more of an angle on the shorter drift, but we were almost there now. Everyone else made it down ok, and I have to give a hand to them, especially the new members as they all did great.

There was one more drift just before the mud bog. Tom decided to leave the Toy there and ride to the lake. We made it to the lake in a short time and stopped to enjoy the lake and beautiful alpine meadow. While we were eating, it started getting cloudy, windy and cold. The storm had caught up to us. I was hoping we wouldn’t get much snow as getting back out was going to be enough of a challenge as it was. We decided to start back up, stopping for Tom’s truck at the base of the hill. I slowly and deliberately clawed my way up through the snow, slipping some but never getting stuck. Jim Molter came up next, slipping some also, but without getting stuck. Tom was next, and he didn’t get too far before the slope and the snow had their way with him. We got several straps and Jim was able to pull him up. Next came Kristy, who made it a bit further, but also got stuck. She decided to use her winch, as I believe, Josh, had not long ago given her some instruction. She was able to pull herself up with no problems. Next came Marc, who was spinning quite a bit. We were wondering if he was going to make it, but he did. Later he realized he hadn’t engaged the center difflock, so had pulled himself up on his front locker. Jan, Tim, Dave and Scott all ended up getting stuck also. Dave, having a wider track and probably a bit too much speed, ended up with a rear tire over the edge, but was recovered ok. Scott got pulled into his tracks, and suffered the same fate. Carl crawled up just fine. On the next drift, Dave slid off again, and this time needed a strap from the front, and a winch to a tree on the back to keep him from sliding while being pulled out.

About this time, Tim couldn’t get his rangie started, so I pulled alongside him to give him a jump. We determined that his alternator had died, so we had to stop every so often to give him a jump and charge his battery a bit. Eventually Carl was nice enough to lend him one of his batteries so he could make it home. A couple people got stuck in the next drift, but most made it through. It had warmed back up a bit, and luckily, we had only encountered a few short flurries of snow while tackling the drifts. The rest of the trip was uneventful, with everyone making it out ok and going their separate ways.

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